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Attorney Allyson Kacmarski represented the last high profile hit-and-run suspect to make news, advising Thomas Letteer during his guilty plea and sentencing for fleeing after fatally striking a 5-year-old boy in Wilkes-Barre.

Kacmarski can’t understand how Megan Panowicz was acquitted in her fatal hit-and-run case Wednesday after admitting she fled the scene.

“I think based on the elements of the offense, and the defendant’s testimony, a not guilty verdict is shocking,” Kacmarski said Thursday. “Everyone acknowledges it was an accident. She didn’t mean to do anything. But it’s not anything about why it happened. If you leave, that’s it.”

A day after the acquittal, the outcome of Panowicz’s trial had many in the legal community questioning the not guilty verdict handed down by Senior Judge Charles Brown, a visiting judge from Centre County.

Former Luzerne County District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll, who brought the initial charges and fought extensively to keep it graded as felony, couldn’t believe Panowicz was acquitted.

“I am very disappointed with the verdict,” Musto Carroll said.

WILK News Radio host Steve Corbett rallied listeners to call Luzerne County President Judge Thomas F. Burke and demand he remove Brown from his duties.

When reached Thursday, Burke said he can’t react to decisions by other judges and couldn’t respond to any criticisms.

“It would be inappropriate for me to comment on the decision of Judge Brown in this matter or any other matter decided by one of our judges,” Burke said.

Burke explained that a president judge “does not have oversight or jurisdiction with respect to any matter assigned to any judge.”

Brown was among several visiting judges summoned to supplement the Luzerne County bench in 2009 due to vacancies brought about by the judicial corruption scandal. After new judges were elected to the bench, the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts ruled the visiting judges would continue to preside over the cases they were assigned until they were completed, Burke said.

Brown, who has not issued a written opinion, still has several pending cases that “he will see through to completion,” Burke said. Efforts to reach Brown have been unsuccessful.

At trial, Panowicz argued she was horrified and panicked after hitting 32-year-old Sharon Shaughnessy, then seeing two other vehicles run over the body on Wyoming Avenue in Kingston in August 2008.

Kacmarski said defense attorneys usually advise defendants the reason they fled is irrelevant.

At Letteer’s sentencing, the prosecution argued the motive for him fleeing the Dec. 23, 2012 crash in Wilkes-Barre was that he was drunk.

Prior to Panowicz’s verdict, a prosecutor warned the judge a not guilty verdict would encourage drunk drivers to flee after crashing.

In Kacmarski’s eyes, the underlying issues in the Letteer and Panowicz cases are very similar.

Except, Letteer was sentenced in May to serve two to five years in state prison and Panowicz is a free woman.

“They’re not all that different. They both fled the scene. That’s what it is. The ultimate situation was the same: someone was driving a car, an accident occurred and they fled the scene,” Kacmarski said.

Attorney John Pike, who represented hit-and-run suspect Walter Raven, tried to rationalize why the judge may have come to his decision. Possibly he felt that Panowicz’s car, traveling less than 30 mph, did not cause the victim’s injuries or death since she was run over by two other cars, Pike said.

“That’s the only thing I could think of,” Pike said. “I don’t know if the Commonwealth proved if the initial contact caused the injury or death. You’re obviously splitting hairs on the language.”

bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2055, @cvbobkal

Pennsylvania’s hit and run law:

3742. Accidents involving death or personal injury

(a) General rule: The driver of any vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury or death of any person shall immediately stop the vehicle at the scene of the accident or as close thereto as possible but shall then forthwith return to and in every event shall remain at the scene of the accident until he has fulfilled the requirements of section 3744 (relating to duty to give information and render aid). Every stop shall be made without obstructing traffic more than is necessary.

(b) Penalties.

(1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, any person violating this section commits a misdemeanor of the first degree.

(2) If the victim suffers serious bodily injury, any person violating subsection (a) commits a felony of the third degree, and the sentencing court shall order the person to serve a minimum term of imprisonment of not less than 90 days and a mandatory minimum fine of $1,000, notwithstanding any other provision of law.

(3) If the victim dies, any person violating subsection (a) commits a felony of the third degree, and the sentencing court shall order the person to serve a minimum term of imprisonment of not less than one year and a mandatory minimum fine of $2,500, notwithstanding any other provision of law.

Source: Pennsylvania Crimes Code

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